Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Books started and aborted

Ripped through Garlic and Sapphires. Picked it up on a recommendation from Barry/Myshkin's excellent blog. It confirmed that I love reading about food and the theatre around its presentation. Note to self: pack better looking clothes for Europe. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to pass myself off as a Japanese tourist. They seem to get cut a lot of slack and are known for being obsessive connoisseurs of the strange. Somehow I don't think lambic/gueuze and stinky cows' milk cheese are strange enough, though.

At any rate, will make sure to lug along the most excellent DK French Cheese guide. It was written by...an obsessive Japanese person.

Started Joe Boyd's White Bicycles, making music in the 1960s. I was intrigued by the interview he gave Radio NZ's abrasive Kim Hill. Boyd was Zelig, there at the dawn of everything and the death of many things. Dylan going electric at Newport; discovering and producing Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, Fairport Convention; touring with all the blues and jazz legends to have survived into the 1960s; Hendrix, Boyd was there. Will finish it later.

Need to get my mitts on the last William Boyd or give Any Human Heart a good re-read. There's a thread here, writers named Boyd who have a Zelig-like ability.

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